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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29475342">Old Pains</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot'>sbuggbot</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Chronic Pain, Disabled Character, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Slice of Life, some time post-game</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 13:27:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,564</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29475342</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Orik's arm starts hurting a lot and the others have to convince him it's ok for them to take a break from adventuring.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Old Pains</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Look, sometimes it's nice to just think about characters comforting each other, especially with no real high stakes.</p><p>Aaand now my brain's turned to static</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The gang trekked along, headed to investigate an obscure corner of the kingdom. It was more for the sake of exploring than anything, maybe to see if there were any remnants of a forgotten time to be found.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orik was keeping pace with the group, but lagged farther behind compared to his usual spot. His arm and his shoulder were bothering him right now. A lot. A sharp ache in the base of his shoulder, shooting down his arm like a hot wire boring through his support bones. Nothing new to him, he'd dealt with this before, but it was excruciating.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could still get by, he thought, he didn't need to drag the rest of the group down with him. They didn't need to worry. He’d managed this before when he was on his own. So he kept his mouth shut and pushed through the pain as much as he could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...Orik, are you doing okay?" Copernica asked after a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Mmh?" Was he not hiding his pain as well as he thought?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You've just been making these soft whining noises and holding your arm a lot," Armilly said. "Your shoulder bothering you?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"A little," he muttered, trying to hide the fact that it was the understatement of the century.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's ok if we need to stop for a bit, you know," Copernica said while moving a branch out of the way before Armilly walked into it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'll… I'll be fine," he said as he hesitantly let go of his shoulder. He probably looked more convincing while he wasn't actively nursing the pain, he figured.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Are you sure? We can take a break if you're hurting," Armilly said. "Or-or even just do this another day."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No, I want to see this adventure through," he insisted. His hand subconsciously drifted back towards his aching arm--it was one of the few things that helped right now. "I can keep going, it's not stopping me from walking."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Sure is stopping you from acting like yourself," Galleo said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'll live," he said as he shifted his shoulder slightly in the hope he could make it more comfortable. It didn’t; the pain flashed brighter than ever for a moment and he flinched.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Are you just going to keep playing tough all afternoon?" Tarah asked. "Because you're not doing a good job at it." She was getting concerned like the others; she just showed it strangely. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I…" He was about to say it wasn’t that bad, but he was waiting for the recent surge of pain to fade from his arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"We don't want you to collapse on us or anything, is all," Copernica said. "You really don't look okay right now."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"And I kinda feel bad seeing you like this and not doing anything to help," Armilly added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want any of you to worry. I can manage, I have many times before." He internally cringed at the strained note that came out with the last part of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Congratulations, you failed step one,” Tarah said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Orik, seriously--" Copernica began, losing her patience. He was a horrible liar, especially without the mask. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to be the reason we fall behind schedule, either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But we don’t have a schedule--?” Armilly said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Galleo made a show of dropping one of his tools on the ground. "Oh no," he said in an exceedingly flat voice. "Now I have to take this apart the rest of the way and clean it."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Huh. I guess we'll have to stop for a bit anyway," Copernica noted in a matching deadpan tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So they found a good little spot to make camp--or at least a temporary one, although it could probably be made into an overnight one with a little work--and sat down to rest for a bit. Galleo laid out a small cloth on the ground so he’d have a relatively clean spot to work and started fiddling with the tool he’d dropped. In all reality it was fine and it didn't need maintenance after being dropped once, but the goal here was to let Orik rest anyway. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Speaking of, Orik sat down and leaned his good side against a tree, sighing and closing his eyes for a moment. He wasn’t aware, but it was here that he openly grimaced for the first time. He hurt and he was getting too drained to keep masking it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Did you bring any of your pain medicine?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not opening his eyes, he shook his head. "The one time I forget…" He would’ve done something about it a while ago if he had been able to. At least taking a load off was helping a little bit...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let me see if there’s anything in the bag,” Copernica said as she started rummaging. “We might have something aside from repair vials and ointments…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would that help or even do anything here?” Tarah asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Theoretically yes, but only to an extent. Doesn’t work that well with old injuries that resist healing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But also Orik’s very existence defies theories sometimes, so…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a conspicuous pause where Orik normally would have made some sort of snarky comment. Instead, he only shifted in his place and watched the others do their things. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Is there something one of us could do to help?" Armilly asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I don't know," he said. "Hurts, hard to think."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think it needs to pop?” Thayne asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orik shook his head. “I don’t think anything’s out of place, it’s just hurting right now. Moving it even a little bit is painful enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Galleo ignored his tool temporarily to check Orik's shoulder in case there was something stuck in the joint somehow. He didn't find anything he could fix. Just the usual irreparable damage Orik had learned to live with. He tried healing it but to no clear effect--Orik felt no difference in pain. Galleo put ointment on the joint anyway on the off chance it did </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’d you do in the past?" He asked. "This can’t be the first time this has happened to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait.” Orik rested his forehead on his knee. “The pain always quiets down eventually.” Although he’d had times where he blacked out from pain before that started happening.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"We've got time at least. Hell, even if we </span>
  <em>
    <span>didn't</span>
  </em>
  <span> we'd make some for you…" He looked off to his side, about to go back to his tool. "...what are you doing, Coco?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm thinking." Copernica had begun poking around at the nearby plant life to see if there was anything useful. She seriously doubted she'd find a panacea, but maybe there was something that would help as a salve or something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Realizing what she was trying to do, Orik said, "You don't have to go through the trouble of that for me."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Orik, you're </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> downplaying how badly you're feeling… again."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thayne piped up. "You're worse about that than Tarah," he said. Orik pulled a face right after, although it wasn't clear if it was in response to what Thayne said or if it was from an ache.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I promise you aren’t a burden. You’re our friend and you’ve done so much for </span>
  <em>
    <span>us…</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"So just shut up and let us take care of you, dammit!" Tarah snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tarah, no---”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She has a point,” Galleo said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, you’re right," Orik admitted. "I’m sorry, I know you just want to help and I’m being stubborn about it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You're not feeling like yourself, it's ok."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I really do appreciate the help and understanding you've been showing me. I think I grew used to going without for some reason…" It had been a very long time since Orik had formed any deep relationships with anyone - he kept a lot to himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You got us, now..."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seeing Orik clutch at his shoulder so much, Armilly reached over and hesitantly started trying to rub an area he couldn’t get to as easily. She paused when he jumped and looked over at her. “Sorry, is that making it worse?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, you startled me, that’s all. It actually helped some.” Or maybe it was just something different. It was welcoming either way. “Just be gentle and stay away from the scarred part farther down,” he said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Okay," Armilly said as she resumed. The contact was enough of a distraction that Orik found himself not needing to hold his shoulder as tightly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Copernica came back empty-handed--she didn’t find anything she couldn’t positively identify that would be useful. “Sorry,” she said with a shrug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I appreciate the gesture,” Orik said. Tarah had begun casually leaning against his not hurting side but in a way that would look like a coincidence to an outsider (or at least she hoped it would). Everyone in the group knew the truth--it was a way she showed affection without breaking her facade--but it wasn’t a big enough deal to comment on. Thayne was being more direct and sitting on his lap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They all stayed like that for a while, sitting together and keeping Orik company while he rested. The aching in his shoulder eventually began to let up, and with it went the pain that had been shooting down his entire arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is your arm hurting less?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's much better now, yes," Orik said. "I apologize for being so difficult earlier. I'm… much more accustomed to giving help than receiving it. Thank you for helping me."</span>
</p>
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